The invention is directed to ring binders and more particularly to binders in which the rings are pivotally secured upon the surface of a file folder or the like and can be pivoted to a position substantially parallel with the surface of the file folder or the like and are provided each with a split and a hinged section, by opening the rings at the split perforated sheets of paper or the like can be inserted and removed therefrom.
The present invention is adapted for use in file folders or the like which require a plurality of papers to be attached, removed and stored in a conventional file drawer with a minimum of thickness.
Conventional ring binders with hard backs which fold one over the other are well known and have been used by school children to maintain order to their school papers for many years. Binders of this type have a fixed thickness regardless of the quantity of papers held thereby. Binders of this general type can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 625,050; 641,705 and 4,722,627.
Improvements for holding papers in a flat folder by means of a flat metal base member which is bendable at its ends so that the ends can be bent and passed through apertures in the file cover onto which perforated papers can then be inserted and held in place by further bending of the ends toward each other is well known in the art. This type of fastener although being universally employed for file folders has a severe drawback in that to retrieve a paper filed thereon positioned near the bottom of a stack of now filed papers all of the papers positioned above the desired one must first be removed and in most instances the stack must be replaced on the now bent up ends of the fastener one at a time in reverse order to maintain their chronological position. Various fastener devices of this type are taught by U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,577,558; 1,652,205 and 4,285,104.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,174,909 teaches a flexible strap paper attachment means which forms an integral portion of the cover. This type fastening means like the fasting device discussed immediately above requires that all papers held by the strap must first be removed before the desired paper can be removed and then replaced one at a time in order.
There has not been a ring type binder for use in a file folder or the like which only has the overall thickness of the contents therein at any given time and that will allow the removal of a selected paper therefrom without adjacent paper removal regardless of the position of the selected paper in a stack of adjacent papers until the emergence of the present invention.